Everyone seems to have a favorite browser, and will often tell you “It’s the best.” But what is the best for one user may not be so for another. So much depends on the device being used, the type of Internet connection, and most importantly, personal preferences. Chrome is my primary browser. I work on a PC laptop with a Wi-Fi conection. I like the way it offers a drop-down list of sites recently visited when I begin typing in a URL. I like the way it remembers my passwords. I like Chrome’s developer tools and the way it allows me to look at page code, and prefer it to Firefox which is often recommended for it’s developer tools.
I made the switch to Chrome a few years ago after encountering too many issues with Internet Explorer. Because I am on the Internet all day long, and have a half dozen processes going on at the same time I need to move quickly from tab to tab and refresh the page to verify updates. I tried Firefox but found it refuses to refresh page content even after several requests. So Chrome is the browser I use most. Because I need to check the appearance of each website and page I am working on in various browsers to ensure the page looks good and works well, I use Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer, as well as a text browser on my PC. On my Android phone I use Chrome, and Safari on iPad, and Silk on my Kindle.
So for people who don’t spend most of their waking hours on the Internet, what is really the most popular browser? According to the US federal government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP), which provides a running count of the last 90 days of government web site visits, the most popular web browser is Google Chrome with 43.1 percent of 2.05 billion visitors. The numbers provided are hard data, not adjusted or otherwise manipulated.
So why is this important to you? Presumably if you are reading this you have a website or are exploring getting a website. You need to know how people are accessing the Internet in general, and your website in particular so you can be sure your site looks good and works well to the majority of users.
According to the data provided by DAP roughly 60% of website users are on desktop/laptop computes, and 40% on some sort of mobile device – iPhone, iPad, Android phone, etc. About half of the mobile users are on iPhones.
Websites need to be responsive to the device on which they viewed. Active content needs to work or be replaced by a workable alternative. Load times need to be fast. Your website needs to be developed with all of this in mind. Users are willing to wait 2 to 3 seconds for a page to load. Mobile users usually have a slower Internet connection. Your website content needs to show up quickly and be easy to navigate in order to keep users on your site.
Your website needs to keep up. Contact us to update your website software/content so you don’t lose out on viewers.
Read the full article on ZDNet.com.